The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-03-23
BEECHER,s MEMORY.
dr. Thomas G.. Shearman Tells of Some of
the Dead Pastors Peculiarities.


Brooklyn Citizen
One of the secrets alike TO Mr.. Beechers i'm
mense power and 81 the difficulty which multi
tudes OF people h. In understanding mis- pc
cularities, especi' y times of trouble. was
MS inability to control his own memory, and es-
pecially to recall his own words He never re-
membered anything of n sermon directly after
he had preached it, If others reminded him of
ideas which he had expressed or language which
he had used, the connection would be. to a large
extent. restored in his mind but especially after
. particularly successful and eloquent sermon
his mind would be almost entire blank as to
Its subject. With his lectures the was diff
Ierent, because he prepared tn ose with more care
and dld not depACd IN general upon the inspira-
zion of the moment. For this very reason they
were generally less eloquent and impressive than
his sermons.
This same defect of memory ran all through
his affairs. He could not at will recall any con-
versation which he had had, or even the sub
stance of letter which he had written. Neither
could his friends and advisers feel any certainty
that the furnishing to him OF such clew as
would suffice to recall to the minds of ordinary
men all that they had done or said on a particu
lar occasion, would answer the same purpose
with him. Generally, it would not; and yet
sometimes o suggestion. which would have been
useless for an ordinary mind, would stir mis-
memory into greater activity, and bring back all
the circums tances of distant event. Although
he had excellent powers of logic, his mind did
not naturally work in a purely logical direction
and therefore, il of little use TO try to con-
vince him that he must have said or done q
certain thing. because the circumstances of the
ease which he did recollect logically REQUIRED
him to do go. Indeed, there could be no
certainty that he had said, on any particular
occasion, that which almost any other man
would have been certain to say. Mrs Stowe
once told me- thar even when he was a boy, he
would invariably remain silent when accused of
any fault of which he had not in fact been
guilty, while his face would assume a hard ex-
IN dnpf
know me we'll enough to know that that is not
true, don't care to say that it is not On the
Dther hand, IL he was asked substantially the
same question in a manner which showed the
nnbelief of the questioner in the charge, he
would respond quickly enough. In many other
cases intensity of feeling, which would ma
Suraliy be expected to result in an outbreak of
words, would only make him the more abso-
luteiy silent He would speak where most men
would be silent. and be silent where most men
would speak. His mind always worked most
freely In the early morning, that between 6
and 10 o'clock he would be in his brightest con-
and best powers Of expression of the
whole day Sleep always seemed TO refresh and
invlgorate him, and the only way in which he
was able to perform public duties in the evening
Was by taking his regular afternoon nap between
2 and o'clock. With these habits, it is easy to
see that it was always very difficult for business
mon, and especially for lawyers, to have any
satisfactory interviews with him. We are &C
work at all in the early morning he could do no
work at night, and before IL o'clock in the morn
ing had lost the best part of his intellectual
energy. When, therefore, it became necessary
to discuss with him an immense number OF
tangled questions of fact. two-thirds of the time
was waited in vain efforts to get his mind into a
working condition. Another popularity of
his mind made him an exceedingly
difficult client. He had no faculty what
ever for dealing with documents. A lawyer is
necessarily trained in handling papers, compar
ing statements of fact. and drawing out of q
history of any case. But Mr.. Beecher was al
most absolutely unable to do this. A very small
collection of documents confused and unsettled
his mind. He entirely dependent upon
some one else to extract the substance OF the
facts, and to give him the result in conversation
When this had been done for him he would fire.
luently fill up all the details by his power OF
imagination and sympathy, so as to give better
account of the matter in hand than had beer
given to him by one who had read all the details
but he never could collect and put together the
details for himself
These peculiarities of his nature account for
the extreme difficulty which he had in finishing
his Life of Christ He was deeply interested in
his work, and enjoyed reading all books the
.sELlacz and in collecting materials: but when he
got the materials together. the task of extracting
.heir substance and giving the result in anything
ike accurate form was not merely dlstasteful
but almost impossible to him. Unfortunately,
DE had never learned to the services of
shorthand writer: and he was or thought h,
was, too old to change his habits in this respect
If he would have taken the trouble for three o.
four months to accustom himself to dictation
he would, no doubt have produced nothing il
that timo wh,cls sc would have been willing t,
publish but he would have acquired the habit O
dictaton, and would, therefore, have foun'
literary work almost as easy as preaching"
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